Dog with allergies.

Dr. Marie replied:

Ah, poor Max. It does sound like he is having issues with allergies still.

It sounds like you are doing the right things. I will give you some of my thoughts on things that have helped other patients I have who have allergy symptoms like this.

It is good that you have Max on special food. I have started to really recommend a food called Skin Support. It is good for food allergies but also helps somewhat with environmental allergies as well.

I can't remember if Max is on steroids at all. I do find that most of my allergy patients need a small dose of steroids in order to stay comfortable and not itchy.

I'm guessing that the nipping at himself is likely due to allergies as well. It's not a bad idea to talk to your vet about starting his flea prevention a little early this year just in case.

I wish I had a magical quick solution for you. Allergies can be tough. There are a great number of things that can be done. The goal is to do what needs to be done so that he is not uncomfortable.

I hope things don't get worse!

Dr. Marie.


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Dr. Marie replied:

I think your vet will likely be supportive of changing to a hypo food. If you do so, it's important to stick to just this food. For the first couple of months that he is on it he can't eat any other treats or food. Then, if he is doing well on it you can gradually reintroduce foods one at a time.

I can't say that I have seen an increase in allergies yet, but I am guessing that with this crazy warm weather I will see more dogs in earlier this year.

Not all dogs get worse with their allergies every year. Some have good years and bad years. I had a lot of clients whose dogs did better last year than usual. It seems like some years produce more allergen (i.e. pollen, etc) than others. So, just because he's starting up in March, it doesn't mean that he is destined to get worse!

Dr. Marie replied:

Allergies are very very common in dogs. There are some days in the year where I will see twice as many dogs for allergies as I do for routine vaccines.

Dr. Marie replied:

I use a lot of Medical Hypo (soon to be renamed Royal Canin Hypo by the way) in my practice. This sounds like a good plan.

I have seen a few dogs that lick their feet out of habit, or like you mentioned, to keep them clean. If the licking is obsessive (i.e. if there is brown saliva staining on the feet or if the feet are red because of the licking) then it's likely more related to allergies than to cleanliness.

Let's hope that things don't get any worse!

Dr. Marie replied:

Sounds like a good idea for now. It may help keep him feeling more clean.

Dr. Marie replied:

It's a tough call Jay. As you likely know, the blood tests are not always 100% accurate. With that being said I've had some fantastic results with doing them. I had one dog whose owner cooked him steak every single night. It turned out that the test said he was allergic to beef, so they switched to cooking him chicken every night and his allergies were GREATLY improved.

If your vet is thinking it's a good idea, then I'd go for it.

Dr. Marie replied:

I wouldn't be too worried about a couple of incidents. It sounds like your vet has you starting on a lower dose and then working up to see what is going to be the most effective. So, it may be that Max needs the higher dose.

Really though, my goal when I have a dog on prednisone is to have the dog comfortable for the majority of the day. If there is the occasional scratch or lick I am not worried.

Dr. Marie replied:

Hi Jay. I'm glad to hear that the steroids are helping Max.

I have had some dogs who are allergic to dust in the house. I had one dog that had severe respiratory allergies (i.e. sneezing.) The owner noticed that the dog always had a sneezing fit at 5:30 a.m. which was annoying because it always woke the owner up. Well, suddenly a light went off in both of our heads when he was talking about this and we both realized what was happening. The dog slept next to his bed right by the heating vent. The heat was on a timer and came on at 5:30 every morning. The guy had his ducts cleaned and the dog did dramatically better!

The thing with allergies is that it is rarely black and white. I tell my clients that allergic dogs have a threshold. If the allergy level gets above this threshold then we see symptoms. So let's say Max has a little bit of allergy to dust, and a little bit to pollen, and a little bit to some food ingredient. When the total combination of allergens gets to a certain level then we start to see itchiness. We can't always blame it on just one or two things.

Thanks for mentioning my article. In the last two days it has gone crazy on Facebook and gotten over 13,000 Facebook likes. I guess it resonates with a lot of people.

Dr. Marie.